Palmipède
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The Palmipède was the world's first working steamship and was designed by Claude François Jouffroy d'Abbans .
construction
Claude François Jouffroy d'Abbans had the Palmipède built in Baume-les-Dames . Since there was no suitable factory in the city to manufacture the steam engine at that time, he commissioned the coppersmith Pourchot to build it. He made a cylinder from chased copper, which was reinforced on the outside by bands and rings made of iron . Since it was problematic to generate a continuous rotation by means of a single-acting steam engine , Jouffroy d'Abbans had come up with a special drive that he had copied from the ducks and therefore called it System Palmipède (= webbed feet).
Palmipède system
There was a pulley on an iron bar on which an iron chain was rolled. The chain was in turn connected to the piston of the steam engine - if the piston lowered, the chain unrolled, if it lifted, the chain was rolled up again. The iron bar protruded over the ship's wall on both sides, and a lever was attached on each side. These were connected by a chain to a flap each, which was 40 centimeters below the surface of the water. The drive lifted the flap and a counterweight ensured that it lowered again. In France the construction was made fun of and was despisingly called Jouffroy la pompe (Jouffroy pump).
commitment
In June and July 1776 the ship sailed on the Doubs between Besançon and Montbéliard, 70 kilometers away . After a brief mission, Jouffroy d'Abbans realized that the Palmipède system was not working properly, with increasing speed it was more difficult to raise the flap, so that the ship could not achieve greater speed due to the design. He abandoned the Palmipède system and now constructed a paddle steamer with the Pyroscaphe .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Andre Janin: Fulton, Georges et Robert Stephenson ou les bateaux à vapeur et les chemins de fer , Paris 1861, pp. 28–29 ( online )
- ^ Henri de Parville: Découvertes et inventions modern , Paris 1866, p. 133 ( online )
- ^ Marquis Bausset-Roquefort: Notice historique sur l'invention de la navigation par la vapeur , Lyon 1864, pp. 21-22 ( online )